Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has revealed the important advice her late mother shared with her.
The Crown Princess said that her mother, Henrietta Donaldson, told her: “You can only be yourself.”
Mary added that this advice has gotten her through a lot in her life. In an interview with Eurowoman Magazine ahead of her 50th birthday next month, the Crown Princess remarked: “She was absolutely right. I reminded myself of those words when I sometimes felt like I was going to lose myself.”
Henrietta Donaldson died in 1997 from a heart condition when Mary was only 25-years-old.
Crown Princess Mary has spoken in the past about her mother and the impact her death had on her.
When she visited a charity that helps children with grief, ‘Children, Youth and Mourning,’ she told those there that she lost her mother too early.
“It happened too early,” she said.
“But as you get older, you learn to see the time you’ve had together as a gift. And the loss offers something that you wouldn’t otherwise have. It makes you a strong person,” Mary continued.
Mary has kept her mother close to her heart and gave her elder daughter, Princess Isabella, the middle name Henrietta in memory of the grandmother she would never know.
She also made sure that her mother was part of her wedding day in 2004. Mary had her mother’s wedding ring sewed into the bodice of her gown, keeping her mother near her heart. Her aunt then placed her wedding bouquet on her mother’s grave in Scotland.
“I have a nice picture of the bouquet at her gravesite,” Mary told Billed Bladet in an interview for her upcoming birthday.
